- My father, Charles Schram, Jr. was a
1st. Lt. 103rd Division, 409th Infantry Regiment, Company HQ
Section.
- Dad enlisted at Camp Dodge,
IA, in Dec. 1942; took basic training at Camp Claiborne, LA;
- attended OCS at Fort Benning , GA:
moved to Camp Howze, TX; (where my mother and I joined him briefly);
- moved to Camp Shanks, NY; departed NY
port on Oct. 6, 1944; arrived Marseilles, France Oct. 20, 1944;
- participated in the Vosges Mountain
operations; was injured by enemy artillary fire near the Rhine
River ......
- close to Speyer, Germany, his
grandfather's place of birth; returned to America on a hospital
ship; and recovered
- from his injuries in the military
hospital in Topeka, KS. He was honorably discharged in 1945 and
returned home
- to Manilla, IA to continue his life.
He was awarded the Bronze Star. Dad spent a lot of time in
the very front lines
- with a Jeep driver and a radio man,
providing gun coordinates. He was involved in the capture of several
enemy
- soldiers and he himself was many times
in danger of being captured as well. He did not tell many "war
stories".
- Charley was a successful
merchant (grocery store, butcher shop, pool hall, laundramat,
apartments); served as
- chairman of the municipal utilities
board; managed and played on the town baseball team for 15
years; served as
- BSA troop scoutmaster; elder of his
church; Mason; American Legion Post member; and from 1945 to
2004
- announced and kept score at every
Manilla High School athletic event. In 1995, he was selected the
- Sporting Goods Manufacturers
Association's "National Hero Of The Year" for his sevice
to youth sports in Iowa.
- He was a Chicago Cubs fan and in
the course of one year attended and witnessed 291 athletic
contests of one
- type or the other.
- Charley and his wife Lorretta
raised two childern, myself and my sister Linda, a retired school
teacher and
- coach in Ft. Worth, TX. I am a
semi-retired marketing consultant and live in Santa Barbara,
CA. Charley and
- Lorretta attended many of the 103rd
Reunions over the years in Illinois.
- Charley passed away at the age
of 84 years on September 12, 2004. He was a wonderful father and an
- outstanding man. One of Dad's and
my friends is a personal friend of Tom Brokaw, who sent Dad an
- autographed copy of The Greatest
Genration, with a hand written note, "Had I known your
life story,
- you'd have been one of the
chapters."
- During the Vosges campaign,
Charley sent home a photograph of five men in trench coats standing
in front
- of a building. On the back it reads:
- "Taken in Bischwald, France
in the Saar Valley, 6 miles south of St. Avold, and 25 mi. east of
Metz.
- Dec. 23, 1944. Moving to the front
this morning after two day rest in this village. Cannon Co. 409th
Inf.
- 103rd Div. Command group. L. to R. 2nd
Lt. Chas. Hanson, 2nd Lt. Ralph Scoppa, Capt. J.D. White, ist
- Lt. Chas. Scharm, 1st. Sgt. J. D.
Stanley."
- Lt. Scoppa and Capt. White are
listed in the Unit Roster of the Cannon Company HQ Section in your
web site.
- I
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